I didn’t watch Happy Valley when it first came out. I was living in Los Angeles back then. I actually only got around to it very recently – just a week before the new series arrived. A close friend had recommended it to me but I always thought it looked too bleak. But I went back to the first series and within minutes I was hooked. It is absolutely bleak as hell but it is also brilliant in a way that only northern British drama can be. You get the rain, you get the backdrop flitting between beautiful countryside, concrete council estates and cosy cottages. You get the accents, the blend of cultures, the families sitting down for their “tea” in the evenings. Not their “dinner” like they do in the South.
And that’s before you get to the acting. Sarah Lancashire is off the charts. I know Sergeant Catherine Cawood – she’s as real as any of the women I grew up with on a council estate in Leeds. She’s flawed, she’s tough, she’s morally solid and she doesn’t give a s*** what people think of her (except the people she loves). I am in awe of all of the actors, from James Norton and Siobhan Finneran to Con O’Neill and Ishia Bennison. I want to name every one of them because, like with Catherine, I know all these people. They are completely true to life, true to my northern soul.
